Many are acrylic, I've heard of a few using glass. Recently I have noticed others using unique types of plastic like MRC Isump. Are there advantages to some of these newer materials. What materials have you heard of being used and are there any advantages? Are they really any better than acrylic? Theoretical advantages welcome!
Custom Sump Material Options
- Thread starter LadyTang2
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I think it really boils down to how much of a gear head you are. Some really like to trick out there sumps with cool lights, colored sumps, color plumbing, some could care less what it looks like. The important thing is that they all function essentially the same. Water flows in one end, flows over weirs, and is pumped out the other end.
It's kind of funny.. the MRC webpage says "A sump can be and should be much more than a simple box that holds components". Ummm.. can it? There sumps with all the holes in the baffle look like an utter NIGHTMARE to keep clean.
So are there advantages of one material over another? I honestly can't think of one.
Glass is easier to clean, and easier for a newb to customize, and is probably cheaper too given cheap aquariums on CL.
Acrylic is more customizable.
The other plastics would be difficult to change or modify due to lack of solvents or glues that would work on them.
It's kind of funny.. the MRC webpage says "A sump can be and should be much more than a simple box that holds components". Ummm.. can it? There sumps with all the holes in the baffle look like an utter NIGHTMARE to keep clean.
So are there advantages of one material over another? I honestly can't think of one.
Glass is easier to clean, and easier for a newb to customize, and is probably cheaper too given cheap aquariums on CL.
Acrylic is more customizable.
The other plastics would be difficult to change or modify due to lack of solvents or glues that would work on them.
JoshH
Tank Status: Wet...ish, growing things....
The three most popular types of materials for custom sumps are Acrylic, PVC and glass.
Some say an advantage of PVC is it's an excellent insulator when compared to acrylic and glass (Acrylic being better than glass in this regard). The downside to PVC is it is absolutely not a material for beginners and does require some particular knowledge and specific tools to work with. It is also not quite as versatile as Acrylic either when it comes to customization.
Glass is easiest to clean and as mentioned above someone with very little experience and relatively cheap tools can easily modify or add things to them. If your looking for a Refugium in a glass sump it's a little more difficult to add one without a lot of light spillage. There are ways but they aren't super easy to do or cheap depending on which route you go. You can build these sumps yourself though with relative ease and they tend to be rather budget friendly as you can find cheap tanks online and buy or make the baffles on your own. You can also go the expensive route and have a custom glass sump built for you. Virtually any custom aquarium manufacturer will build sumps as well, these can be a little expensive but nowhere near the cost of acrylic or PVC custom sumps.
And Acrylic, the go to material for most manufacturers. Not always the easiest to clean but an incredibly flexible material. Found in all colors one could possibly want and customizable to almost no end. With some playing around most can work with acrylic like they can with glass, it does require some rather expensive tools to get into some of the fancier things that can be done with it though. These sumps can get crazy expensive depending on what you would like to do with them but that's really up to the purchaser in the end as there are relatively cheap mass produced options on the market right now.
As for overall, I think they are all great options and it comes down to what you want out of a sump. If you want something that just works, a cheap used tank with glass or acrylic baffles DIY installed will work just fine. If you want fancy colors, doohickies and sport car lighting, go with custom acrylic. There are many in between options as well.
Some say an advantage of PVC is it's an excellent insulator when compared to acrylic and glass (Acrylic being better than glass in this regard). The downside to PVC is it is absolutely not a material for beginners and does require some particular knowledge and specific tools to work with. It is also not quite as versatile as Acrylic either when it comes to customization.
Glass is easiest to clean and as mentioned above someone with very little experience and relatively cheap tools can easily modify or add things to them. If your looking for a Refugium in a glass sump it's a little more difficult to add one without a lot of light spillage. There are ways but they aren't super easy to do or cheap depending on which route you go. You can build these sumps yourself though with relative ease and they tend to be rather budget friendly as you can find cheap tanks online and buy or make the baffles on your own. You can also go the expensive route and have a custom glass sump built for you. Virtually any custom aquarium manufacturer will build sumps as well, these can be a little expensive but nowhere near the cost of acrylic or PVC custom sumps.
And Acrylic, the go to material for most manufacturers. Not always the easiest to clean but an incredibly flexible material. Found in all colors one could possibly want and customizable to almost no end. With some playing around most can work with acrylic like they can with glass, it does require some rather expensive tools to get into some of the fancier things that can be done with it though. These sumps can get crazy expensive depending on what you would like to do with them but that's really up to the purchaser in the end as there are relatively cheap mass produced options on the market right now.
As for overall, I think they are all great options and it comes down to what you want out of a sump. If you want something that just works, a cheap used tank with glass or acrylic baffles DIY installed will work just fine. If you want fancy colors, doohickies and sport car lighting, go with custom acrylic. There are many in between options as well.
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LadyTang2
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I was looking at the seamless sumps from custom aqauriums and they said the material they use is less likely to have algae grow on it due to smoothness and some other attribute. Does anyone know of other materials like this?
JoshH
Tank Status: Wet...ish, growing things....
Sorry @LadyTang2 I must have missed your message. When my sumped tank was set up honestly I cleaned it about twice a month. It was an acrylic sump and exposed to the living room so I wanted it kept in tip top shape, I used a regular Nano Flipper to scrape it down and it worked really well.
As for the Custom Aquariums sumps, I think the real reason they don't grow algae quickly is they aren't made of any clear acrylic. So there is much less light getting to the surfaces of the sumps. In reality, algae will grow anywhere on just about anything it's just a matter of time...
